Merchants allow customers to use credit cards to purchase goods and services. Many merchants now have sites on the Internet which allow customers to purchase goods and services on-line using a credit card. After the customer places an order with a merchant and submits a credit card number for payment of the order, a third party provider subsequently processes the order to debit the customer's credit card account and to credit the merchants bank or checking account. Typically, customer representatives of the provider solicit merchants to select the provider to process the credit card orders. A problem with this approach is that it requires a great deal of labor and is inefficient in that each possible merchant needs to be directly solicited. Merchants now expect to be able to obtain whatever they wish for by using the Internet. Thus, what is needed now is a system and method for enabling merchants to apply for a credit card processing account using the Internet.